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Disney's New FastPass Makes Lines Shorter

FASTPASS is a revolutionary new enhancement offered free to Disney Theme Park guests at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, giving them an alternative to waiting in line for some of the most popular attractions. Here's how it works:

At select attractions, guests choose between using FASTPASS or waiting in the regular standby line. (To help them decide, a digital clock denotes the regular wait time and the return time for FASTPASS.)

To use FASTPASS, they insert their theme park tickets into a FASTPASS turnstile. Out comes the free FASTPASS ticket, telling them what time to return to the attraction.

Instead of waiting in line, guests can then enjoy other attractions in the park.

At their appointed time, guests return to the attraction, head for the FASTPASS entrance and proceed to the pre-show or boarding area with little or no wait.

Boosted by its initial popularity with guests, Walt Disney World Resort has expanded Disney's FASTPASS -- an innovative, free system designed to reduce the time guests wait in line. FASTPASS has been added to three more attractions -- Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney-MGM Studios, and Space Mountain and Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom. FASTPASS was first rolled out in July at Kilimanjaro Safaris, Countdown to Extinction and Kali River Rapids at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Developed totally in-house for use at some of the most popular attractions during the busiest days, FASTPASS allows guests to spend less time in line and more time exploring the parks. There is no extra charge to use the system, exclusive to Disney parks.

A very important unmentioned fact about FASTPASS: once you get a FASTPASS for one attraction, you may not get another one until the tim of your first one expires. There is no way to cancel out or change to another one. So, if you have a return time of 4 hours for Space Mountain, you can't get one for Splash Mountain which only has a 2 hour wait, for example.